A Picture Worth A Thousand Words
by Aello-ello
Summary: "Stark tilted his head up, surveying Daniel, but he held his gaze. He was trained for this after all, and the SSR didn't make agents who could be broken by Howard Stark and a photograph." In which Howard finds the photo Daniel took of Peggy in Whitney Frost's room. Peggy/Daniel


**AN: I finished watching Agent Carter and it was AMAZING! Absolutely gutted they never got to make a third season :(**

 **Anyway, I loved that moment in the last episode when Peggy and Daniel are in Whitney Frost's room and he takes a photo of her in the middle of all the diagrams. I thought they were going to come back to it but they never did, so I wrote my own version haha. This takes place when they are all still working in the SSR, but before the scene where Peggy goes out and comes back to find them arguing. I may have taken a little liberty with who is there at this point in time, I've only seen it once so I can't quite remember. Sorry for the long AN - Enjoy! :)**

* * *

"Oi, Sousa!"

Daniel looked up sharply. Howard Stark was standing in front of the boards Mr Javis had found in some storage room in the SSR building, halfway through stapling the photos they had taken of Whitney Frost's crazy diagram lair to them.

Daniel raised his eyebrows, but Howard beckoned him over, and so, sighing, he hobbled to the crutch resting against one of the desks and slotted his arm through. Keeping his head ducked as he walked, a silent apology for the clanging crutch disrupting everyone's concentration, he made his way to Stark. As he passed the entrance to the lab he couldn't help but glance up on hearing Peggy's voice drifting through the doorway. Seeing her standing close to Wilkes, discussing something science related that he could never understand, he forced himself to ignore the burning in his stomach and look away.

Only when Stark's ridiculously expensive, Italian leather shoes came into view did Daniel look up again. Even as a cripple he was a good head taller than the genius, but Stark radiated an importance that always made him feel like he was looking up at him.

"I've got something for ya, Sousa." Stark muttered out of the side of his mouth, glancing at him like he was about to let him in on a joke. That he wasn't completely focused on the task at hand was irritating enough, but the last thing Daniel needed right now was Stark making a game of all this, he already had enough to deal with dragging Samberly around.

"What do you want, Stark?"

"No, no, Chief." he laughed, "I think this is much more about what _you_ want."

Stark wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Daniel felt his patience wearing thin. A panicked voice at the back of his mind warned him of where this conversation might be going, but he quickly shoved it aside.

Evidently realising that Daniel was not going to indulge him by playing along, Howard reached over and swiped a photograph from the top of the pile of evidence he was meant to be sticking to the wall. Daniel felt his heart beat jump as he realised what Stark had found, and what he was inferring from it.

"Well, wouldya take a look at that. I think we can learn a lot about our lovely Ms Frost and her plans from this shot."

Daniel knew what it was already. But still he forced himself to look at the photo Stark was waving in front of his face, and sure enough, there was Peggy, smiling at his camera in the middle of a criminal's liar, looking completely composed, as if sneaking into megalomaniacs' bedrooms was just part of the average day. For her, he supposed, it probably was.

He could feel Stark watching him closely, so he schooled his expression, not allowing anything to slip.

"I was testing the camera."

Stark stifled a laugh.

" _Testing the camera_ , that's a good one Sousa, don't think I don't know flirting when I see it – I am the master of that particular art y'know."

Daniel carefully kept is face completely steady, forcing himself not to blush or look down, but to hold Stark's stare. He had told his lie and he was sticking to it.

"Alright, why would the camera need testing when you had already taken half the photographs successfully? I don't know how you run things in here Chief, but if I'm testing something, I usually do it before I start using it."

Stark tilted his head up, surveying Daniel, and he knew he was watching for a tic, an involuntary response that would give him away. He stayed completely still and held his gaze, he was trained for this after all, and the SSR didn't make agents who could be broken by Howard Stark and a photograph.

"Well," Stark said after a moment, breaking the gaze, "if it's only a test photo and you don't need it for anything, I guess I'll just stick it in the trash…"

Daniel kept himself in check by brute force. Silently he berated himself for being so stupid as to take the picture in the first place, let alone to somehow assume he was going to be able to keep it. Watching Stark throw away the picture was fair punishment for his foolishness.

"Or, come to think of it, I could give it to that guy Wilkes. He seems to really like her, he might appreciate a photo of her to keep with him."

"I'll take it!" Daniel had spoken before he had even decided he was going to act, and now Howard Stark was smirking at him triumphantly.

Daniel felt his face heating up, as he frantically tried to construct his next sentence in order to get him off the hook.

"If you're looking rid of it so badly, I'll take it off your hands for you. I'm not much use for all the science stuff, so I'll do what I can to help."

Stark was still smirking as he handed the photograph to him.

"That'd be very helpful of you," he laughed as Daniel took it, "Make sure it's well and truly in the trash now…"

"You bet." Daniel replied, rotating on his crutch and walking away, Stark's booming laughter ringing in his ears.


End file.
